ISRF Political Economy Fellow 2018-19
ISRF Political Economy Fellow 2018-19
Francesca Gagliardi is a Reader in Institutional Economics at the University of Hertfordshire (UK). Her research programme revolves around the application of the principles of comparative institutional analysis, specifically the relatively recent institutional complementarities approach, to the study of the impact of financial institutions and intermediation on the entry, growth, performance and survival of SMEs and social enterprises, particularly cooperatives. Francesca has published in several international academic journals. In 2008 she was awarded the Horvat-Vanek prize by the International Association for the Economics of Participation. She is currently under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing for a research monograph on Varieties of Capitalism and Firm Performance: The Institutional Context of Economic Organisation.
Her ISRF-funded project develops an interdisciplinary historical and comparative perspective on the political economy of cooperative firms, with inputs drawn from institutional economics, political science and economic sociology. The concept of institutional complementarity provides the backbone of the analytical framework which is used to evaluate the evidence gathered from three country-based case studies of the evolution of the cooperative sector, chosen to represent the variety of capitalist regimes: the United Kingdom, a liberal market economy; the Netherlands, a coordinated market economy; and Italy, a Mediterranean type of capitalism. The findings will provide valuable insights for policy makers and cooperative sector organisations, but also for scholars working on alternative organisational forms, as well as those involved in curriculum design.
Cooperative firms are a successful organisational form in a number of countries and economic sectors. Recent figures report that the total turnover of the top 300 cooperatives worldwide exceeded US$ 2.1 trillion in 2015 (WCM, 2017) and that cooperatives account for 12% of total employment in G20 countries (ICA, 2015). These are not negligible figures. However, commonplace conceptions, largely promoted by economists since the late 1950s, see cooperatives as marginal and inefficient business structures, with limited survival prospects in capitalist environments. This research aims to show that this argument does not necessarily hold once the conditions prevailing in the socio-economic context in which cooperatives operate are considered. While a body of empirical studies support the International Cooperative Alliance’s recognition that societal aspects are correlated with a robust cooperative economy (ICA, 2017), a sound conceptual framework, able to elucidate why cooperatives flourish in certain contexts but not in others and thereby guide empirical research, is currently lacking. The project develops an interdisciplinary historical and comparative perspective on the political economy of cooperative firms, with inputs drawn from institutional economics, political science and economic sociology. The concept of institutional complementarity provides the backbone of the analytical framework which is used to evaluate the evidence gathered from three country-based case studies of the evolution of the cooperative sector, chosen to represent the variety of capitalist regimes (Hall and Soskice, 2001): the United Kingdom, a liberal market economy; the Netherlands, a coordinated market economy; and Italy, a Mediterranean type of capitalism. The findings should provide valuable insights to policy makers and cooperative sector organisations, but also to scholars working on alternative organisational forms and those involved in curriculum design. The project would therefore advance the ISRF’s goal of promoting interdisciplinary research that develops new knowledge and solves contemporary theoretical and practical problems.
If you would like to contact any of our Fellows to discuss their ISRF-funded work, please contact Dr Lars Cornelissen (Academic Editor) in the first instance, at [email protected].